Financial ETFs Surge To New Highs As Yellen Hints At Upcoming Rate Hike

Investors looking for ETFs with rising momentum should consider the SPDR Financial Select Sector Fund (XLF). This product just hit a new 52-week high of $24.34 today, and is now up 46.36% from its 52-week low price of $16.63 per share.

Will this ETF continue its string of recent wins? Let’s take a closer look at the fund, its recent gains, the category it resides in, and its ratings and outlook to get a sense of whether its momentum is sustainable or not.

Inside XLF’s Rise

As mentioned earlier, XLF has now gained 46.36% from its 52-week low, which was hit back on February 24, 2016. The fund has now returned 3.32% over the past month, 11.62% over the past three months, and 25.54% in the past six months. Those returns compare to the benchmark S&P 500 index’s 2.77%, 7.74%, and 7.79% returns in the same periods, respectively.

XLF currently sits above its 10-day, 20-day, 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages (MAs), which from a technical standpoint suggests a very strong possibility that the recent gains can continue. That’s because the shares have no short-term overhead resistance to bump up against.

A Look Under The Hood

SPDR Financial Select Sector Fund is a Equity-focused product issued by State Street Global Advisors. Its expense ratio of 0.14% makes it the #3 cheapest ETF among 37 total funds in the Financial Equities ETFs category.

XLF currently boasts $22.47B in assets under management (AUM), placing it #1 of 37 ETFs in its category, and #22 of 1915 total ETFs in the U.S. exchange traded universe.

The investment objective of the SPDR Financial Select Sector Fund ETF is to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the S&P Financial Select Sector Index.

Bank stocks surged today as Fed chair Janet Yellen delivered her testimony to the Senate Banking Committee, and investors took her words as a sign to buy financial stocks.